New York stumbles, California advances on Common Core implementation
If there is a prime example of how one state mismanaged the implementation of the Common Core standards, triggering massive opposition, and how another did it deliberately, with a relatively smooth implementation and considerable public support, look no further than New York and California.
Unlike heavily Republican states where much of the opposition to the Common Core has emerged, New York and California have much in common. They both have large and diverse school populations (2.7 million students in New York, and 6.2 million in California). They are both heavily Democratic states. They both have progressive governors, with fathers who were iconic governors before them.
But their experience with the Common Core standards — and how Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Gov. Jerry Brown approached them — could not be more different, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the fate of one of the most significant education reforms affecting actual classroom instruction in the nation’s history.
Two weeks before Christmas, a blue ribbon task force appointed by Cuomo and headed by former AOL Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons issued a harshly critical report, charging that “numerous mistakes were made” in New York’s implementation of the Common Core. It recommended a “comprehensive review” of the more than 1,500 Common Core standards in English and math. Following the review, it called for “a modification, elimination, or creation of standards” in order to come up with “rigorous New York-specific standards.”
No such soul-searching is New York stumbles, California advances on Common Core implementation | EdSource: